CapitaLand Retail China Trust Q2 DPU up 5.4%

CapitaMall Xizhimen, A shopping destination for young and trendy fashionistas located in Beijing's Xicheng district, close to government buildings and commercial hubs. PHOTO: CAPITALAND

SINGAPORE - Mainboard-listed CapitaLand Retail China Trust (CRCT) said on Wednesday that distribution per unit (DPU) for rose 5.4 per cent to 2.73 cents for the second quarter ended June 30, 2015, from 2.59 cents for the year-ago period.

This was on the back of a 5.3 per cent increase in net property income to $36 million for the quarter.

For the first half-year, DPU rose 7.6 per cent to 5.37 cents from the 4.99 cents a year ago.

Based on an annualised DPU of 10.83 cents and CRCT's closing price of $1.625 per unit on July 28, 2015, the annualised distribution yield for the first half-year was 6.7 per cent.

Unitholders can expect to receive their DPU for H1 on September 22, 2015.

Said Mr Tony Tan, CEO of the trust's manager, "In the first half of the year, our portfolio of malls achieved 6.1 per cent growth in net property income. For the quarter under review, we recorded rental reversions of 4.6 per cent at our multi-tenanted malls and a healthy occupancy rate of 95.0 per cent across the portfolio. Tenants' sales at our multi-tenanted malls increased 17.8 per cent year-on-year, while shopper traffic grew 2 per cent."

He added: "We will continue to optimise the retail mix in our malls and increase their appeal to shoppers to further enhance unitholder value, while continuing to be on the lookout for suitable acquisition opportunities to drive our next phase of growth."

CRCT is the first and only China shopping mall Reit in Singapore. As at end June 2015, it owns a portfolio of ten shopping malls located in six Chinese cities.

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